Tract # 7. 
On the Witness of the 


Spirit 


Bangs» 


DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
DURHAM, N. C. 


Form 934—20M—7-35 


Pky TRACT NO. 7. Sch. R. 


ap ys ; ee RT lig 2,4),3 
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“i, ON THE Bo ei Rey 


WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 


But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit : for the Spirit search- 


eth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 1 Cor. ii, 10. 


Are you a penitent sinner? Has your heart been 
broken by the righteous law being brought home to your 
conscience? And are you now mourning on account of 
your numerous sins against God? Have you resolved, by 
the grace of God, to turn unto him with all your heart? 
If this be your state of mind, then you would not deceive 
your soul in the all-important work of salvation, for a 
thousand worlds. The cry of your heart is, Lord show 
me the good and right way, and I will walk therein. 

Know then, that itis your privilege to have God’s Spirit 


_ bearing witness with your spirit that you are his child. 


Rom. viii, 16. Mark well! The witness of the Spirit is 


_ not regeneration or justification ; but it is an inward tes- 


timony to your spirit, that you are now justified in the 
sight of God. “ After ye believed,” said St. Paul to the 
Ephesians, “‘ ye were sEaALED with that holy Spirit of 
promise.” i,13. Again, chap. iv, 30. And grieve not 
the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are szaLep unto the 
day of redemption.” This witness of the holy Spirit is 
promised to all those who are called into the fellowship 
of the. Gospel: Acts ii, 38,39. ‘+ Then said Peter unto 
them ; Tepent, and be baptized every one of you in the 
mame of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye 
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise 
is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar 


off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” Here 


the Apostle Peter declares: that the Holy Spirit is pro- 


_ mised to all that are afar off, to all that the Lord our God 


Pale 433 Cilia ere 


No. '7.] as at ~y oe. ae 


shall call, in every age, nation and ‘country : the promise 
is therefore to you; for your penitence, your mo 
and your prayers, are a ‘sure indication that God 
called you. This promise to which the Apostle alludes, 
is that which the Lord Jesus, previous to his crucifixion, 
made to his desponding disciples: “It is expedient for 
you that I go away ; for if I go not away, the Comforter 
will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send him 
unto you.”—‘“* When he, the spirit of truth is come, he will 
guide you into ail truth.” John xvi, 7,13. And this pro- 
mise of the Comforter, or the Holy Spirit, the sacred scrip- 
tures declare to be the common privilege of all believers. 
‘Whenever, therefore, your heart is changed by the 
grace of God, and you are justified through faith in the 
Lord Jesus, you will have this Holy Spirat of promise, by 
which you shall know, that you are an “heir of God, and 
a joint heir with Jesus Christ.” Rom. viii, 17. “Now 
we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the 
Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things 
which are freely given to us of God.” 1 Cor. ii, 12. Do 
not then deceive your own soul with a false hope. The 
true Christian believer does not hope that he is born of 
God; but he has an inward witness that he is “ Passed from 
death unto life,” and that he is now in the favour of God. 
Hope is not fixed upon present, but upon future objects. 
What a man now hath in possession, he does not hope to 
have: we neither hope for the past nor present, but for 
the future. It is true, the Christian hath a an 
anchor to his soul, both sure and steadl ich 
entereth into that within the vail, whither t mer 
is for us entered, even Jesus, who is nz de an biegpes 
for ever.” Heb. vi, 19, 20. 
Bat this hope is founded on a knowled 
the witness of the Spirit, of our ire 
beloved. , 
When a sinner is aw akened to a sense 


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3 No. 7.1] 


md determines by God’s assistance to forsake his sins, 
nd return unto the Lord, he has a right to hope that God 
ill pardon him: Having received this pardon by faith in 
he Redeemer, he then, if he persevere in holiness, has a 
ight to hope, that God will sanctify or cleanse him from 
ll unrighteousness: and while he walks in obedience to 
God’s commandments, he has reason to hope that God , 
ill take him to Heaven: Thus the true believer has a 
ell-grounded hope of future happiness, because he enjoys 
he abiding witness of the Spirit in his heart that he is 
ow a child of God. , 
From this view of the subject, you perceive that the 
ope of the experienced Christian is grounded upon his 
resent knowledge of having been brought into the favour 
of God; and this knowledge is the result of the witness of 
God’s Spirit, testifying to him that his sins are pardoned, 
for the sake of Jesus Christ.—Reader! have you this © 
witness? this knowledge of your acceptance in the beloved ? 
Call it not enthusiasm. It is the height of enthusiasm 
to expect to be saved without experiencing this evidence 
of divine favour. The way to heaven is marked in the 
sacred Scriptures; and mankind are threatened with ever- 
lasting destruction if they do not walk in it: but would 
God threaten men with entire destruction for not walking 
in that way, and yet, never let them know whether they 
were in it or not! Impossible. It would be cruelty—and 
cruelty belongs not to the God of the Bible. The Bible 
describes the characters which are proper candidates for 
the kingdom of Heaven ; and how shall we know whether 
or not we are those candidates? We must compare our- 
selves with those descriptions in God’s word.—Such can- 
‘didates are said to be born of God, to have the love of God 
in their hearts, to bring forth the fruits of righteousness, 
to have the fruits of the Spirit, which are ‘Love, joy, 
peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meek- 
ness, pele a Vv, 22, 23, How can these 


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—_ 


fruits of the Spirit appear unless the Spirit itself be inthe — 
heart ? And where will you look for these fruits, but in 
your heart, your tempers, words, and actions? ** He that 
believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in Muse * 3 
1 John v, 10. ; 
Behold then, penitent, mourning sinner, your ee 

able privilege! Know assuredly that, in order to be happy 
in Heaven, you must first have this testimony of the Spirit, 
to give you a satisfactory evidence that you stand justified 
before God, by faith in Jesus Christ. Do not, therefore, 
‘ conclude yourself a Christian, merely because you have 
had some sorrow for sin, have externally reformed, have 
been baptized, and because you belong to the Church, 
and partake of her ordinances. All these things are good 
in their place. But you must go further. To have the 
comforts and advantages of religion, you must have a real 
change of heart: and when this change is wrought by 
the eternal Spirit, you shall have the inward testimony of 
the Holy ‘Spirit, that you are passed from death unto life. 
Has this radical change been wrought in you? Examine ~ 
impartially. Search deep. Build not upon the sand of 
a false hope. If you have it not yet, then cry mightily to 
God, Wrestle—agonize in prayer, until God speaks to 
your soul in accents of love. Then you can exper 
ally sing, 

My God is reconciled, 

His pardoning voice I hear ; 
He owns me for his child, 
I can no longer fear ; 
With confidence I now draw nigh, 
And Father, Abba Father, ony i ; 


wy 

ae PUBLISHED BY N. BANGS AND J. EMO “ 5 - 

Sor the Methodist Episcopal Church, and for the New-Yor rk Methodist Tragt 
Soetety, at the Conference orgy 13 Crosby-st ret. bia iM 

} See ANT I ea ata 


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hotomount 
Pamphlet 
Binder 
Gaylord Bros., Inc. 
Makers 
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PAT. JAN 21, 1908 


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